Practical Effect of an Instinct

[jchokey]

One of the PCs in my game, a retired veteran who spent years fighting barbarians in the wild marches of the kingdom, has the instinct:

"Always look for ambushes when outdoors."

To me, this is a great expression of his character's alertness, paranoia, observation, and military background. But I'm not really sure what sort of practical 'rule-breaking' effect it should have in play in ambush situations.

To clarify: per the rules, an ambusher rolls stealthy (or inconspicuous) and the ambushee rolls observation (or,if that's lacking, Perception at double obstacle penalty). That determines whether the ambushee is surprised by the ambush or not. So, in essence, *any* ambushee, always gets a chance to spot the ambush, whether s/he is actively looking or not.

So, it seems that a with the Instinct listed above ought to get something 'extra' than just that normal Observation roll as part of the Stealthy vs. Observation test.

But what should that be?

I have two ideas on this:

Thought #1: Allow him (and him alone-- no help from others) to roll Observation vs the ambusher's Stealthy roll *before* coming into any outdoors ambush situation. If he succeeds, no ambush happens-- we just go straight to positioning for range and cover. If he fails, then just do the regular Stealthy vs. Observation ambush as per normal, with him getting to re-roll Observation.

This makes conceptual sense to me, but it does seem to introduce the idea of 're-rolling' the same skill twice for the same event... which seems to border on breaking the "Let it Ride" principle.

Thought #2: Allow this instinct to give +1D or +2D on his Observation roll in the Stealthy vs. Observation test.

That seems cleaner and easier to me... but it starts to make the instinct seem a bit more like a die trait than an instinct.

What do y'all think of those two? Can you provide any better ones? Or, can you think of a better way to approach this instinct?

[RedBoxer]

#1 seems closer to the truth of it, but not quite there.
Always give him the chance (that everyone else has) to look for ambushes. No need to have it be more than that. The question is what does 'Always look for ambushes' mean? Does he want his character to ride ahead to attempt to root out said ambushes, or does he stay in the party to look? In the party he can't give any additional notice, but if he rides ahead, he can spot the trap before it is sprung, so I think that the instinct needs a little focus.

[luke]

I like option #1, too. But don't break Let It Ride, you sly dog. Let the instinct allow him to PWN! ambushers if he spots them. If he's successful, he can ambush them or something. But if he fails, well, he fails just like everybody else.

-L

[zabieru]

A third choice is to let him do something besides scope the bushes. This depends on what skills he has available, but something like Tactics or Convoy-wise might be appropriate.

Make this a linked test with the standard Observation vs Stealthy. He passes, that switchback up ahead looks like an ideal ambush site and he's up one to spot the killers. He fails, and the ravine below looks dangerous and he's trying to get a line on that when they spring the trap at the switchback (and is down one to spot them, obviously).

You could combine this with option 1, as well, but if you do I'd go a bit easy on the advantage spotting them early gives him relative to what you might do if he didn't get the linked test, just the early test.

[jchokey]

I like option #1, too. But don't break Let It Ride, you sly dog. Let the instinct allow him to PWN! ambushers if he spots them. If he's successful, he can ambush them or something.

Whoa! So, like, if he beats them, then *they* have to roll Steel for hesitation? That's cool! Thanks, Luke!

[jchokey]

A third choice is to let him do something besides scope the bushes. This depends on what skills he has available, but something like Tactics or Convoy-wise might be appropriate.

He has Tactics. I've often thought this should be related to this.

Make this a linked test with the standard Observation vs Stealthy. He passes, that switchback up ahead looks like an ideal ambush site and he's up one to spot the killers. He fails, and the ravine below looks dangerous and he's trying to get a line on that when they spring the trap at the switchback (and is down one to spot them, obviously).

That's also a good idea. Not quite as "Whoa!" as Luke's, but definitely worth thinking more about. Thanks.

[jchokey]

Whoa! So, like, if he beats them, then *they* have to roll Steel for hesitation? That's cool! Thanks, Luke!

Actually, it just occurred to me that you might not have meant something quite that generous (or did you?) -- at least not without further rolls.

A somewhat milder approach would, perhaps, be to say that if he beat the ambushers in their stealthy vs. his observation, that, instead of going straight into R&C, he could instead try to circle round the ambushers and ambush them-- by doing a 'reverse' roll of *his* stealthy vs. their observation. (Which, I guess wouldn't break Let it Ride, since it's actually a test for something different-- not "Do they surprise him" but "Does he surprise them.")

[zabieru]

Yeah, his task in that case was actually "spot ambushers before they spot me" while the ambusher's task was "remain hidden until they're in the trap." He wins, he sees them and they don't know he's there. He still needs to get into position to spring the trap. That's not in his intent. This is probably also contingent on the plausibility of his party remaining silent and out of view during the approach. If he's traveling with a large group of city folk, it's hard to imagine that he'd spot assassins in the bushes before they heard his companions. Likewise, if he spots bandits in the treeline as the road comes off the plains and into the forest, it's likely they saw his people first. But if he's with a small group and/or they're being cautious, give him the benefit of the doubt.

You could use the Tactics bit too if you wanted. If you're gonna let his instinct stretch that far (the Tactics roll is likely to be straightforward depending on how you define the task, likely something like "identify likely ambush sites" that's based on the terrain and how well he knows it, maybe Ob 2 if he's roughly familiar with the area, Ob 3 if he's been around temperate forests in the past, and Ob 4 if he's never traveled the steppe before* so it's going to constitute an advantage for him in general) you shouldn't go easy on him in the counter-ambush, though.

Even if the PCs are accompanied by a full marching band and a minstrel in patchwork cloak, though, he still has the opportunity to use that as a diversion and slip away alone or with a few friends to jump the ambushers while they're watching the tubas.

Hell, at this point we're playing the game for your man. He can play it himself. You've got several ways to use that instinct, I'm sure you can think of a few more and he probably can too once he's got some BW under his belt.

EDIT: The simplest way for him to use his advance knowledge is simply to quietly warn his companions. If they know there are bandits on the reverse slope of the hill, they won't be surprised at the sudden burst of fire. Treat it as a standard R&C, no ambush, allowing the bandits to choose starting distance.

EDIT EDIT: I also meant to put a little footnote on about how those Tactics obstacles are made up and I'm not looking at my books. You should look up the skill because you are the GM. I am just some guy on the internet.

[luke]

As always, Devin's suggestions are spot on.